And across five states…to Nana’s and Granddad’s house we went.
And now we are back. I am back.
First, I want to apologize for disappearing for two weeks with no notice and for just leaving you hanging in the middle of the scripture reading posts. I mistakenly believed that I would be able to post while I was gone but…no. It just didn’t happen (with no computer of my own and then no internet service at our second stop…well, you get the picture).
I want to apologize too because I am feeling very rusty (writing) and can’t seem to get the (my) words to flow smoothly.
Second, since you might be wondering where I went and what I was doing I’ll share a bit. We went to Kentucky and Tennessee – specifically to Russell Springs, KY and Pigeon Forge, TN. Both out of the way, middle of nowhere, where is that sort of places. Places that have made me deeply ponder my idea of the simple life and whether I am just kidding myself about being able to live it. Can I really survive without Starbucks? Or pizza delivery? Or Chinese food? Am I really up to cooking every single meal we eat? Or to enduring a darkness that is so dark that I am almost scared to go out in it. (The owners of the cabin we stayed at in Pigeon Forge really need to install a spotlight. Trying to load up the van in complete darkness at 5:00 am in the morning was really freaky. We had a mountain cliff on one side of the driveway and a grassy mound on the other and only a small porch light to illuminate the dark.)
Maybe you are wondering why we choose such strange and out of the way places to visit? Well, we went to Russell Springs, KY because my parents recently built their retirement home there (I am originally from KY although I consider myself a Texan). We went to Pigeon Forge because we felt that since this was to be our only vacation we should actually do something fun for the children – not that Russell Springs isn’t “fun” but…there isn’t much to do there if ya know what I mean… so our answer to the “fun” question was take the children to Dollywood which is in Pigeon Forge, TN about three hours away from Russell Springs – a beautiful drive btw - we loved every minute of it and the giant crosses – about three – along the way, and the mountains, and the fact that the whole area felt “Christian”. I’m not sure if the area is considered part of the “heart” of the Bible belt or not but it sure felt like it. Everywhere we went the people were very nice and friendly and we received many compliments about our “nice” family. A very unusual thing to hear due to there being 7 of us.
And in Russell Springs there was literally a Baptist church on every corner - literally.
We loved Pigeon Forge (despite the fact that it rained on us the whole time), and Gatlinburg, and the Smokey Mountain National Forest and we plan to return again soon as we did not have time (and due to the rain) to tour the Forest and all the wonderful pioneer homes in Cades Cove and other areas.
We had one half of a sunny (and beautiful) day to discover a very pretty little section of Pigeon Forge called Old Mill and fell in love with it. We also enjoyed Dollywood despite the fact that we got rained out and ended up spending the children’s souvenir money on ponchos - $45 worth! Ridiculous! If I was to do it over, I’d just let us get wet and I would only have bought ponchos for Bess, Ben and the stroller, but at the time I had no idea that the ponchos would cost so much – they were being sold at the shop counter so I wasn’t able to check the price beforehand.
So that is the short version and at least explains my disappearance. My apologies.
Due to the fact that it has been several weeks since I’ve posted the scripture readings I’ve decided to let you all continue on your own without my guidance. I hope that you were keeping up with your readings despite my absence. Just so you know, I was able to keep up with my own readings although some days I did miss and had to catch up on the next day.
May God bless you as you continue to be obedient to Him.
7 comments:
Did you take that horse pic? Very nice!
Sounds like y'all truly were in the boonies. Even we have Starbucks -- sure, the nearest one is about 15 miles from us, but at least it's there. :-)
Thanks. I did take the picture. Mark was fishing with the Aaron. He has a fish tale to tell. :) If you ever see him again, you'll have to ask him about it.
You can't tell but my Mom is on one of the horses w/Bess and Bethany and Caleb were on the other horse. They had a great time. I didn't realize it until later but I could have ridden with Ben. We got up on one of the horses after the others came back from their little ride. I didn't realize how much I missed riding until I got up on the horse. I wanted to take off. Too funny. I actually love and miss the country, but I'm not sure if I want that much country. If ya know what I mean.
My parents built their home in a very, very small town (which is really funny since they are not small town folk). And their house, although in a developing neighborhood, is very far off the beaten track. We almost drove right into the Cumberland River the night we arrived. (It is very dark there.)
There is no Starbucks, or Target, or Wal-mart, or much of anything. We tried to go out to eat on Sunday night and everything was closed. My Dad was cursing about it being "the Bible belt!" As though he didn't realize he'd just moved into it. Crazy. He is not Baptist and not conservative and is pro-abortion. They simply do not fit.
I love that everything was closed on Sunday. That is how it should be - although honestly it would take some getting used to.
If you ever see him again, you'll have to ask him about it.
Is there a chance I might not see him again? Do you know something I don't? :-) Actually, that reminds me, we'll probably be in town the weekend of Aug. 15 for Nathan's b-day festivities. We'll send y'all an E-vite as soon as we work them up.
I actually love and miss the country, but I'm not sure if I want that much country.
There certainly are varying levels of "country." Brandi and I are about as far out as I'd want to go. Some people don't consider it country unless your nearest neighbor is 1 to 5 miles away. We've got neighbors, but they're not right on top of us. It's a nice balance.
Sounds like your parents have a nice place out there. Do you have any photos of the house?
Do your parents have Internet access out there? We found that rural areas have very limited Internet options.
No, just thinking that growing homesteads don't allow for much travel.
We will be looking forward to Nathan's B-day. Are you celebrating Brandi’s birthday then too? Is her birthday the 10th?
No, I don’t have any pictures of the actual house. It is a two story house about 3000 square feet with two levels. Typical of KY houses what would be our upstairs is downstairs there – not exactly in the basement but built into the side of a hill. It is a nice place. It has several large decks in the back. You can see those in the pictures. The downstairs is basically ours. The downstairs has a large family room with two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a large wet bar – complete with fridge and ice machine. Our bedroom has a large closet type room that they have turned into a bunk room for the kids. It has two full bunks in it. The boys sleep on one side and the girls on the other. The other downstairs bedroom is my sister’s room, but if she isn’t there we are allowed to use it. They do have internet, and cable, and several large screen TV’s. They completely furnished the place via IKEA. Everything matches. It has windows everywhere. It reminds me of a Florida house in that it is painted a light blue green color throughout and has white furniture and black accents and pine hardwood flooring upstairs, burber carpet down. Very modern. I have a picture of my grandma I can post that shows the interior color of the house. Right now there are woods surrounding the house. They do have several neighbors, but they are seasonal and/or only come up on the weekends. If the neighborhood develops, they will have neighbors very close and will lose all the wonderful wooded area around them. If the neighborhood develops, they will be in the same sort of neighborhood that we are in albeit more upscale. The Cumberland River can be viewed from some of the windows in the house.
~There certainly are varying levels of "country." Brandi and I are about as far out as I'd want to go. Some people don't consider it country unless your nearest neighbor is 1 to 5 miles away. We've got neighbors, but they're not right on top of us. It's a nice balance.~
If we ever move to the country, I think we would want something similar to what you and Brandi have. We would like to be within an hour drive of a small town with stuff and we would want to have at least an acre or so between us and our neighbors but not so much land that we are on our own. I've realized too that I like wide open pasture land as opposed to closed in treed land. I like fields.
No, just thinking that growing homesteads don't allow for much travel.
It's hard to pull away, even for a weekend. Our favorite thing to do these days is hang around here.
I've realized too that I like wide open pasture land as opposed to closed in treed land.
Me too. I'd love to have a little bit of both. The idea of essentially owning your own forest sounds really cool, but I wouldn't want to live among so many trees. For one thing, it makes it hard to get any good air flow. When we moved out here we were amazed at how airy and windy it so often is. It helps to cool things down, and, I suspect, keep mosquitoes away (we haven't really had any mosquitoes this summer).
About neighbors, if I had my druthers they wouldn't be a wee bit further removed from us, but it's really no big deal. The neighbors across the street from us are the closest and their front door is about 200 feet from our front door (though they use their side door as their "front door," so we don't ever really see them). The neighbors to our left (if you're facing the house) are about 250 feet from us. In our old neighborhood they'd probably be three or four houses down, if that makes sense. They're nice people, a little quirky, but nice. The neighbors to our right I've never seen come out of their house; it's a little place, but they keep it well-maintained. They're a good distance from us, at least 500 feet I would think; there's a nice, spacious field of coastal grass between us and them. Our property is narrow and our house is at the front end of it, closer to the street. Brandi and I have both kicked around the idea of one day building a new house at the back of the property and letting one of the kids or some family live in our current house. I told Mark that when you're in the back of the property you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere with a thick forest behind you and fields all around you. The only thing you can really hear are the cows mooing in the adjacent field. It'd be perfect to take all the boys out camping back there.
I guess your parent's plan to live at their new place in the summer time?
I had my druthers they wouldn't be a wee bit further removed from us
Meant to say they "would be," not "wouldn't be."
I absolutely love the idea of owning land and having all my children in homes around me. I want, want, want to be near my grandchildren. I hope to have lots and lots of them. I also love the idea of building debt free and would love for Mark and I and each of the children to have debt free houses, but Mark thinks that is a pipe dream.
My parent’s neighborhood is full of trees and lots of green undergrowth (and lots of mosquitoes). Over the course of several walks I took I realized that I like trees, but with no undergrowth and not surrounding me like I’m in the Ent forest. The combo of overgrowth, mosquitoes, and humidity was just too much for me. It is nice there in winter though and is probably beautiful in the fall. Once you are out of their neighborhood there are lots of beautiful cultivated fields with quaint little farmhouses (all with chairs on the front porch and flowers in the flower beds – very pretty).
The cabin we stayed at in Pigeon Forge had a house right behind it and the whole time we were there Mark was complaining about how close it was. He thought we would be isolated and didn’t like having strange neighbors within view. We hate how close we are to our neighbors now. It is windy here (at our house) and I love it. It is wonderful for flying kites.
Right now my parents are both still working so they are only visiting the house on holidays. My mom has her summers off so she could spend the summer there if she wanted, but she would be all by herself and that would probably be a little weird. I have no idea how they are planning on living there once they get older or if one of them becomes disabled. They claim that they have planned for it, but it makes no sense to me. The neighborhood is deserted most of the time esp. in the winter and the nearest grocery is at least 20-30 min. away down winding country roads. A five minute drive there seems to take half an hour.
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